Where funny people can have fun (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ukexseme) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} ohnotheydidnt,@ 2008-06-24 13:55:00 |
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Sam Sparro is neither female nor black, remains sexy while (not) being so
Sam Sparro
reveals his sex and race
Sam Sparro's album 21st Century Life comes out in the US this July, and the first single, Black and Gold, is still hovering around the upper end of the UK charts.
The male pop star seems like a thing of the ’80s today. Why is that?
I think because mainstream music has been so hyper-masculinised by hip-hop culture in a lot of ways. In the ’80s everyone was a bit campy. Nowadays in hipster culture, you can’t tell who’s gay and who’s straight, but in mainstream American culture it’s still fairly misogynistic, a bit homophobic and very masculine. And I think danceable pop music is associated with being a bit girly.
You write and co-produce your music. Is it important for you to be recognised for more than just your voice?
I guess it’d be nice for people to know that I do create the music and write the songs that I’m performing. For me, I know what I want to create in my head, and I have the skills and ability to do it. I just prefer doing everything myself, and the process of being alone and creating something from scratch.
I read Chaka Khan was amazed to discover that you were white. Do you get that a lot?
Well, I was in Dublin and had an interview with this journalist who said she thought I was gonna be this big black man. In the previous sentence she said, “Your video’s on TV all the time, you must be thrilled!” I thought, well, you’ve obviously never seen the video.
Source
The title track and next single off his album is 21st Century Life, so here's a crappy cameraphone clip of him doing it live. I cannot explain what he's wearing.
Okay, I basically have no idea what he or the song sounds like from that video, so here's a TV live version of his previous single, Black and Gold.
And plus, Black & Gold (Marcussen Album Version) is apparently (source: ONTD commenter) a free itunes download this week only. Woo free music get it fast. I guess go to the itunes site or open your itunes application or whatever, I don't have itunes I don't know how it works.
"I definitely think I'm a reluctant pop star, because I just want to be myself and have fun," says Sam Sparro.
We are talking in the vestibule of a plush apartment block in north London where he has a long-term let to cover him as Black and Gold takes off in Europe. He is a bit the worse for wear, following a night on the tiles in Camden ... He was recognised a few times on his travels. "I had a few people coming up to me, saying, 'Are you Sam Sparro?'" he winces, unimpressed. "It could be a blessing and a curse."
Everything he says is undercut with modesty and a sense of nervous excitement at his new-found fame. Just as the eccentric clothes he wears to perform in aren't the real him - today he's in jeans and T-shirt [THANK GOD] - so his words seem bolder in print.
He was born Sam Falson, the son of a church-minister-cum-performer called Chris Falson. "Imagine," he suggests, "Bob Dylan if he was a gospel recording artist."
The stage name started as a family nickname, inspired by the Australian radio mascot Sammy Sparrow. He lived in Australia until he was 10, at which point his family moved to LA. "I began to rebel and really lost interest in studying," he says. A confident child, he was happy in Sydney surrounded by friends and relations.
In America, he felt ostracised. "I didn't know the culture, and nobody got my jokes, which is a big deal when you're a kid. It was a horrible time." How depressed was he? "I would say that, between the ages of 12 and 16, I spent the whole time listening to Portishead and Belle & Sebastian." Wow, he really was depressed. "Yeah, but it was just teen angst, really."
Did he ever contemplate anything drastic? "What, like slit my wrists? No. But I did start to pierce my body in weird ways. I'd pierce the cartilage in my ears and pierce my belly button using big safety pins, which is a really silly thing to do. I gave myself a tattoo on my ankle when I was about 14. I did it with a needle and a marker. It was a little cross, and it lasted about five years. I don't know why I'm telling you all of this stuff. It's painting me as a complete lunatic."
Sparro can now see the benefit of a miserable adolescence. "I think all that time being unhappy was a good thing because I learned to rely on myself."
Sparro is openly gay. "I've always thought, 'This is me, I'm happy with myself,' and so that's what I'm here to project. So that gay teenagers don't have to get the shit kicked out of them in school and think that they're a horrible person. It's easier to be an 'out' pop star today. Morrissey never came out, and Neil Tennant left it very, very late, whereas Jake Shears was open from the start."
For Sparro, even getting beaten up, as he used to, has had its plus points. "I'm tougher because of it," he says. His parents were "really cool" about his coming out. "I thought it was going to be the worst thing in the world and they were never going to talk to me again. I really worried that they were going to disown me. But I should have trusted them a bit more and known that they're better than that. I'm really close to both of my parents, and they're really supportive and they love my boyfriend. I've been with him for two years."
The thing that kept Sparro going throughout his time in LA was singing in church. "I grew up with a church background, but now . . . I have a general faith in a higher power. I'm a spiritual person, but I'm not into any religion. I was always kind of a non-denominational Christian. What do you call it when people clap their hands and say, 'Yeah'? I was a Gloria Gaynor Christian."
Sparro started making music in his bedroom using a computer, a keyboard and a software programme. He started with Food Chain - "about a relationship between me and a close friend where I felt like I was at the bottom of the food chain. It was really rubbish". Then he wrote Sally, about a stripper. "It's kind of a fictional story," he says, "but kind of autobiographical." Beg pardon? "You didn't know this, did you? I used to dance in my underpants in LA. I only did it for about three weeks. It was a really crappy gay club called Fubar, which stands for 'fucked up beyond all recognition'. It smelt like an armpit ... I probably made about $10. I was just desperate for attention. I really didn't care about the money."
Ultimately, he'd like a nice home for him and his partner, plus their two cats, and to be surrounded by family and friends: the people that matter. "I couldn't care any less if people like me or not, to be honest," he says, finally. "Because I like me. So why should I care if anybody else does? I've got friends, and I've got family - I'm a real family person. I've got everything that I need. I don't need the permission and applause of loads of silly people"
reveals his sex and race
Sam Sparro's album 21st Century Life comes out in the US this July, and the first single, Black and Gold, is still hovering around the upper end of the UK charts.
The male pop star seems like a thing of the ’80s today. Why is that?
I think because mainstream music has been so hyper-masculinised by hip-hop culture in a lot of ways. In the ’80s everyone was a bit campy. Nowadays in hipster culture, you can’t tell who’s gay and who’s straight, but in mainstream American culture it’s still fairly misogynistic, a bit homophobic and very masculine. And I think danceable pop music is associated with being a bit girly.
You write and co-produce your music. Is it important for you to be recognised for more than just your voice?
I guess it’d be nice for people to know that I do create the music and write the songs that I’m performing. For me, I know what I want to create in my head, and I have the skills and ability to do it. I just prefer doing everything myself, and the process of being alone and creating something from scratch.
I read Chaka Khan was amazed to discover that you were white. Do you get that a lot?
Well, I was in Dublin and had an interview with this journalist who said she thought I was gonna be this big black man. In the previous sentence she said, “Your video’s on TV all the time, you must be thrilled!” I thought, well, you’ve obviously never seen the video.
Source
The title track and next single off his album is 21st Century Life, so here's a crappy cameraphone clip of him doing it live. I cannot explain what he's wearing.
Okay, I basically have no idea what he or the song sounds like from that video, so here's a TV live version of his previous single, Black and Gold.
And plus, Black & Gold (Marcussen Album Version) is apparently (source: ONTD commenter) a free itunes download this week only. Woo free music get it fast. I guess go to the itunes site or open your itunes application or whatever, I don't have itunes I don't know how it works.
"I definitely think I'm a reluctant pop star, because I just want to be myself and have fun," says Sam Sparro.
We are talking in the vestibule of a plush apartment block in north London where he has a long-term let to cover him as Black and Gold takes off in Europe. He is a bit the worse for wear, following a night on the tiles in Camden ... He was recognised a few times on his travels. "I had a few people coming up to me, saying, 'Are you Sam Sparro?'" he winces, unimpressed. "It could be a blessing and a curse."
Everything he says is undercut with modesty and a sense of nervous excitement at his new-found fame. Just as the eccentric clothes he wears to perform in aren't the real him - today he's in jeans and T-shirt [THANK GOD] - so his words seem bolder in print.
He was born Sam Falson, the son of a church-minister-cum-performer called Chris Falson. "Imagine," he suggests, "Bob Dylan if he was a gospel recording artist."
The stage name started as a family nickname, inspired by the Australian radio mascot Sammy Sparrow. He lived in Australia until he was 10, at which point his family moved to LA. "I began to rebel and really lost interest in studying," he says. A confident child, he was happy in Sydney surrounded by friends and relations.
In America, he felt ostracised. "I didn't know the culture, and nobody got my jokes, which is a big deal when you're a kid. It was a horrible time." How depressed was he? "I would say that, between the ages of 12 and 16, I spent the whole time listening to Portishead and Belle & Sebastian." Wow, he really was depressed. "Yeah, but it was just teen angst, really."
Did he ever contemplate anything drastic? "What, like slit my wrists? No. But I did start to pierce my body in weird ways. I'd pierce the cartilage in my ears and pierce my belly button using big safety pins, which is a really silly thing to do. I gave myself a tattoo on my ankle when I was about 14. I did it with a needle and a marker. It was a little cross, and it lasted about five years. I don't know why I'm telling you all of this stuff. It's painting me as a complete lunatic."
Sparro can now see the benefit of a miserable adolescence. "I think all that time being unhappy was a good thing because I learned to rely on myself."
Sparro is openly gay. "I've always thought, 'This is me, I'm happy with myself,' and so that's what I'm here to project. So that gay teenagers don't have to get the shit kicked out of them in school and think that they're a horrible person. It's easier to be an 'out' pop star today. Morrissey never came out, and Neil Tennant left it very, very late, whereas Jake Shears was open from the start."
For Sparro, even getting beaten up, as he used to, has had its plus points. "I'm tougher because of it," he says. His parents were "really cool" about his coming out. "I thought it was going to be the worst thing in the world and they were never going to talk to me again. I really worried that they were going to disown me. But I should have trusted them a bit more and known that they're better than that. I'm really close to both of my parents, and they're really supportive and they love my boyfriend. I've been with him for two years."
The thing that kept Sparro going throughout his time in LA was singing in church. "I grew up with a church background, but now . . . I have a general faith in a higher power. I'm a spiritual person, but I'm not into any religion. I was always kind of a non-denominational Christian. What do you call it when people clap their hands and say, 'Yeah'? I was a Gloria Gaynor Christian."
Sparro started making music in his bedroom using a computer, a keyboard and a software programme. He started with Food Chain - "about a relationship between me and a close friend where I felt like I was at the bottom of the food chain. It was really rubbish". Then he wrote Sally, about a stripper. "It's kind of a fictional story," he says, "but kind of autobiographical." Beg pardon? "You didn't know this, did you? I used to dance in my underpants in LA. I only did it for about three weeks. It was a really crappy gay club called Fubar, which stands for 'fucked up beyond all recognition'. It smelt like an armpit ... I probably made about $10. I was just desperate for attention. I really didn't care about the money."
Ultimately, he'd like a nice home for him and his partner, plus their two cats, and to be surrounded by family and friends: the people that matter. "I couldn't care any less if people like me or not, to be honest," he says, finally. "Because I like me. So why should I care if anybody else does? I've got friends, and I've got family - I'm a real family person. I've got everything that I need. I don't need the permission and applause of loads of silly people"
